Team
Gary Magnant
Cofounder, General Partner
W. Adam Hill
Cofounder, General Partner
Ajay Verma
General Partner, CEO FVE Foundry
Gary Magnant is a Boston-based serial biotechnology entrepreneur with a successful track record of starting, building, and selling life science companies for more than 25 years. He conceived of and developed the Venture Engineering process and principles used by the Fund to manage portfolio company risks, build power-broker teams, and exit faster than Venture Capital funds. Gary is the brainchild and co-founder of several successful biotech companies, including Owl Scientific (acquired by ThermoFisher, NYSE: TMO), Sage Science (Beverly, MA), and Thrive Bioscience (Wakefield, MA). He was also a co-founder of two venture-backed startup companies, ActivBiotics (>$100M invested) and ThermoCeramix ($>10M invested), which failed under the Venture Capital model and drove much of Gary’s inspiration for a better early-stage investment model. Gary is currently interim CEO and Venture Engineer at TriBiotica, a Triple Sharp portfolio company. He is a former chairman and member of the Board of Trustees of Stoneridge Montessori (now Harborlight Montessori), and a recipient of the institution’s most prestigious community service award, The Hallowell Award. Gary is the inventor of numerous life science and advanced materials patents, including a patent issued in 2017 covering advanced cell and tissue culture systems.
W. Adam Hill is the Chief Technology Officer of Triple Sharp Venture Engineering, LLC. He is focused on positively impacting patients’ lives and bringing efficiency and effectiveness to discovering new medicines. Adam is a pioneer in the implementation of new technologies to effect greater efficiencies in life sciences. Prior to joining Triple Sharp, Adam served as a long-time head of drug screening for Novartis, one of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. In this role, Adam advanced new compounds into clinical development and evaluated new drug discovery technologies. He also served as a managing scientist at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough. Adam received his D. Phil, Chemistry & Pharmacology, from the University of Oxford and conducted post-doctoral research at Harvard University and the University of Connecticut.
Ajay Verma is a neurologist, neuroscientist, drug developer, inventor and biotech science advisor. He was most recently the Head of R&D at Yumanity Therapeutics. He has also served as EVP of Research and Experimental Medicine at Codiak Biosciences, CMO at United Neuroscience, VP of Neurology at Biogen and Novartis, and Director of Neuroscience Experimental Medicine at Merck. Ajay's drug development experience spans small molecule, peptide/protein, antibody, oligonucleotide, vaccine and exosome
drug platforms given via multiple dosing routes. He has largely focused on translational and early clinical development in neurology indications using precision drug development approaches that leverage biomarkers and experimental medicine paradigms. Ajay is also highly engaged in advancing CNS drug development sciences
and has developed novel inventions and experimental medicine approaches for
assessing disease process and drug effects. He is a scientific advisor to several biomarker, CRO and biotech companies, a Visiting Adjunct Professor at U of Southampton and U of Rhode Island and an Independent Review Committee member for Target ALS. Prior to
Biopharma, Ajay was a U.S. Army Lt. Colonel and Professor of Neurology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and staff neurologist at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Ajay received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University, where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Solomon H. Snyder.
Rahul Bhansali
Cofounder, Managing Partner
Rahul Bhansali founded / co-founded three companies in organic food home delivery, physical commodity trade consulting and industrial safety technology. Most recently, he co-founded StrongArm Tech (~$60m invested). There, he delivered a machine learning / IoT technology that is shown to reduce injuries by as much as 52% for enterprise clients. He sold to companies including some of the largest courier, retail, and ecommerce companies in the world. He has seen firsthand the pitfalls and inefficiencies of the Venture Capital model, instilling in him a passion to operate an improved early stage investment model. As Managing Director of Indlak Group, Rahul built a financial and operational consulting business to miners and manufacturers around the world, helping improve cash positions and improve distribution networks. Additionally, he built the first organic food home-delivery company in India, Ehsaas Organic. After bringing it well into profitability, he integrated it into his family companies. He spent the first years of his career as a Risk Analyst with RBC Capital Markets on one of the largest hedge fund portfolios in the world at the time ($12 Billion). Rahul has an MBA from Babson, is trained in Socratic method-based dialogue facilitation, and practices deep insight meditation.